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THE OSCARS 2014

The Oscars feels increasingly like a waste of moral time, even for a pop culture fiend like Eyewear. What with the Ukraine-Russia standoff, Syrian refugees suffering, and even the rise of UKIP, let alone ecological crisis and capitalist misfiring, not to mention the Nazi-style regime in North Korea, the lie that Hollywood saves the world is now a bit stale. Still, a good film is a work of art, as well as entertainment, and even entertainment is welcome now and then in tough times; and a great film can be both great art and a serious moral act. It is for this reason that Eyewear hopes that 12 Years A Slave wins for best film, director, actor and supporting actress. It probably won't, though it is the finest moral Hollywood film since Schindler's List, and perhaps in some ways the greatest film ever made (despite Brad Pitt's hirsute performance as a too-modern Quaker), if only for how it combines art and a vision of a crime almost too vast to fathom without breaking. Instead Gravity and American Hustle seem to have a lock on some prizes, for technical or patriotic or small-minded reasons too dull to explore in detail.